Micro Weddings: Elliott and Kelsey

Kelsey MacDermaid, the 33-year-old co-founder of the YouTube channel The Sorry Girls, and Elliott Charbonneau, a 33-year-old business operations lead at a blockchain data company, met over Hinge and started dating during the particularly frigid February of 2021. After long late-night phone calls and alternating weekends at each other’s homes, Elliott moved into Kelsey’s place in September of 2022. They knew they were life partners, but with weddings being a hassle (and a steep expense), the pair decided to skip engagement and head straight to city hall in March of 2025, where they tied the knot in near secrecy. In June, they surprised their friends at a casual backyard reception during which the groom sported socks and sandals. Here’s how it all came together.

Kelsey: The Toronto dating landscape in February of 2021 was unique, to say the least. Covid changed how relationships formed. With lockdowns limiting casual dating, it seemed like all the relationships around me either fizzled fast or got serious overnight.

Elliott: Kelsey and I matched on Hinge, and since neither of us are the type to drag out small talk, we scheduled a meetup that same day in Riverdale Park.

Kelsey: It was dark, windy, bitterly cold and kind of sad. We found ourselves flirting despite it being 20 degrees below zero.

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Elliott: I brought a thermos of hot toddy. My friend Ash advised, “You can’t just show up to a date with only booze,” so I grabbed a couple of little cakes from a shop I passed.

Kelsey: I don’t really drink, and I was driving, so Elliott drank most of the hot toddy while I ate the cake in the dark. I was surprised when Elliott texted me right after that date. Most people try to play it cool and wait a day or two. I was already home, warming up in a bath because it was so cold, and when I told him, he replied, “I’m in a bath too.” I thought, “Okay, I guess our interests align.”

Elliott: I had been working as the chief of staff for a tech company called Element AI, but it had recently been acquired, which left me temporarily “fun-employed” and living in a bachelor apartment in the east end. I was supposed to move to Paris with the company, but Covid-19 happened, so I stayed in Toronto figuring out where to go next. Kelsey gave me a great reason to stick around.

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Kelsey: I was living in the west end, and my schedule was almost the opposite—I was super busy working as a digital media producer and co-host for The Sorry Girls, my YouTube channel. Elliott was the most confident unemployed person I’d ever met, which could have been a red flag but instead made me feel secure. I thought, If this is him when he’s not working, imagine him in full force.

Elliott: I really respected Kelsey’s independence. She had her own business and her own schedule. I’d hear from her once a day, and at first we only saw each other once a week. That space made everything feel more meaningful.

Kelsey: In May of 2021, I hosted a small outdoor birthday party in honour of my friend, which was the first time Elliott met my inner circle. There’s an iconic photo of us together on a hammock. I remember thinking that I was falling for him.

Elliott: My love for Kelsey had been building up too, and I could see her in my life long-term.

Kelsey: A few weeks after that birthday party, Elliott technically said, “I love you” first, but I set him up to say it with a big wink-wink-nudge-nudge: I told him I had super strong feelings for him and that I loved spending time together. After I walked him into saying it first, I had no problem saying, “I love you” back.

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Elliott: With me in the east and Kelsey in the west, we started spending more and more time in each other’s sides of the city. We joke that if we had started dating a year later, we probably wouldn’t have made it, because when the city removed that DVP ramp, getting to the east end became a 90-minute commitment.

Kelsey: We decided to move into my house in September of 2022, after about a year and a half of dating.

Elliott: My mom asked if I’d keep my condo on the east side. I told her no, which felt like a big deal. We both loved our spaces, and up until that point it had been fun to spend time in both my sleek condo with a downtown view and Kelsey’s warm older house with a little backyard.

Kelsey: I was happy when he moved in. Living together was easy.

Elliott: We’d both lived with partners before, so we knew the territory, and having a house meant we could each have our own zones. I could game while Kelsey hung out in the living room—it never felt claustrophobic.

Kelsey: We’re pretty independent, but we tie our independence together. I’m pescatarian, so we often cook separately—he’ll make chicken or steak while I make tofu or fish—but we eat together. On special days, he’ll cook a full meal for both of us that always feels like an event.

Elliott: Over the next three years, we agreed that we were life partners. We loved what we were building, and we were excited about a future together. We knew we wanted to get married.

Kelsey: But, when it came to hosting a wedding, it felt like the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.

Elliott: We tried making mock guest lists to see if it would be possible. Could we whittle it down to 40? Nope. Even when we wrote a list of 80, it felt like we were leaving beloved people out. It got political and expensive fast.

Kelsey: At a certain point, we thought, Why are we building this up into such a big thing? If we want to get married, let’s just do it. We didn’t need to throw a huge wedding just to publicly prove our love.

Elliott: We were already common-law. Getting married wasn’t about changing our legal status—it was about having a small celebration with the people closest to us. When we started thinking about it that way, we realized it didn’t have to be some extravagant, high-pressure event. It could just be a really lovely dinner. Or a party in our backyard.

Kelsey: I’ve never dreamed of a big wedding-dress moment. I don’t like being the centre of attention. I didn’t want an engagement either, primarily because I didn’t want to wear two stacked rings.

Elliott: Plus, it didn’t make sense to have a big “We’re engaged!” moment followed by months of anticipation for a wedding no one was going to be invited to.

Kelsey: Around December of 2024, the plan became more concrete. We chose June—a great month for love. We’d get married at Old City Hall, at Queen and Bay, in the morning, then have everyone over for a backyard celebration that night.

Elliott: But then my sister, who works for the coast guard, got posted to Rankin Inlet, in Nunavut, for the summer. When we asked, “When can you come?” she said, “March or September, when the ice comes back.”

Kelsey: We switched gears and planned a city hall ceremony for March, which we’d keep a secret until June, then surprise our guests with a backyard party that would serve as the reception.

Elliott: Only immediate family and a select few guests knew. I had to tell my friends in New York, as it didn’t make sense to ask them to fly up just for a barbecue, but otherwise we kept it totally under wraps.

Kelsey: We’d hosted many backyard parties before, so it wasn’t suspicious. A few people had other plans—cottage weekends, that sort of thing—but that was part of the point. We didn’t want that “You must be here” feeling.

Elliott: We just wanted to celebrate with whoever could make it.

Kelsey: In January, we went shopping for vintage rings. Elliott, being a man, found his ring on the first day at Cynthia Findlay. No hemming and hawing for him.

Elliott: Bought it. Locked it in. I liked that it was a vintage, characterful ’60s ring with a few diamond studs. It had more life to it than a simple gold band. And I liked how much Kelsey liked it on me.

Kelsey: I took more time, but eventually I found mine—a low-profile round diamond flanked by a flared gold band—through Vancouver-based vintage jeweller Evorden. I work with my hands a lot, and I liked how it wouldn’t get in the way. Plus, it complemented the other rings I wear.

Elliott: The same day I found my ring, we started calling our families. Since we weren’t “engaged,” we just said, “Hey, how are you? FYI we’re getting married soon.” My sister was the first call, given that her boat schedule ran the show, and her reaction was probably the most moving.

Kelsey: We could hear the tears welling up in her eyes over the phone. Everyone was stoked in general, but my dad gave a real dad response by flatly saying, “Awesome.” He might have been relieved we were having an affordable wedding.

Elliott: My dad sounded panicked—but only because the man has a stacked calendar, so he wanted to make sure he could make it.

Kelsey: I’m really committed to sustainability in fashion and interiors, so it felt important to reflect that at our wedding. My city hall look was a satin dress, a blazer and burgundy high-heeled boots, all of which were thrifted. It’s hard to find unstained white items second-hand, so I sourced most of my look online through Poshmark and Facebook Marketplace.

Elliott: I wore a green suit I’d bought years earlier for a friend’s wedding—something a little different than the standard black or navy—and added a light-grey turtleneck, similar to Andrew Garfield’s monochromatic Oscars look.

Kelsey: The turtleneck was a great solution for a March wedding—it felt sharp and cozy.

Elliott: We booked the city hall wedding chambers, planned for photos with Toronto photographer Lizzie O’Donnell and made a dinner reservation at the Hamptons, our favourite restaurant. We needed somewhere to stash the family while we snuck off to take photos at city hall, so we made another reservation at the Queen and Beaver, around the corner.

Kelsey: We spent the morning of the ceremony day getting ready in our house. I thought there would be a spare moment in the week leading up to the wedding to write my vows, but I ended up scribbling them during the car ride to city hall. There were 11 of us at city hall: my parents, Elliott’s, Elliott’s brother, my grandparents and both of our sisters. With its lofty ceilings, soft light and simple elegance, the chamber had way more charm than the drab tone we expected. With just our immediate families, it felt full but not overcrowded.

Elliott: When you book with city hall, you have 30 minutes to use the wedding chamber however you like. We skipped music and a walk down the aisle, and our officiant had a military-like efficiency that impressed me.

Kelsey: The ceremony lasted about 10 minutes. We exchanged vows and rings, signed the paperwork, and then spent the rest of the time taking photos with family in the space.

Elliott: We only had a minute or two for our vows—they were more like vow haikus—but we quickly reaffirmed all of the things we love about each other and how excited we are for our future together.

Kelsey: Elliott read his with clear eyes, but when I started reading mine, I started to tear up, which had Elliott welling up too.

Elliott: We went outside to take photos expecting to bundle up in shawls and overcoats, but it was one of those freaky warm March days, so I was actually sweating. We’re usually shy about being the centre of attention, but we found ourselves enjoying the feeling of being newly married, and we felt comfortable showing it in front of the camera.

Kelsey: Over the next few months, it was harder than we’d anticipated to keep our marriage a secret. We wanted to wear our gorgeous rings, but we kept running into friends on the street. I’d frantically shove my hand into my pocket or try to wrestle the ring off behind my back.

Elliott: I also have so many friends who are either married or about to be, and I would say something like, “Oh, me? No, I would never get married,” just to throw them off.

Kelsey: When it came time for our backyard reception, on June 7, 2025, we didn’t want it to feel traditional in any way. No speeches, no awkward first dance, just fun. I set up indoor furniture in the backyard to make it look like an outdoor living room, with a vintage dresser as the bar station, lamps and even a rug to make it comfortable.

Elliott: The guest list was around 40 people, and they started rolling in gradually at 3 p.m. We kept the food low-maintenance: one table was a buffet with simple ​​hors d’œuvres, and the other was light American South fare—warm cornbread and sticky barbecue ribs.

Kelsey: Instead of a wedding cake, we commissioned a big raspberry pie from Sonia’s Sweets, which had the word “Hitched” encircled by blueberry and apple hand pies. We also opted for popsicles in place of ice cream—all very dishwasher-friendly.

Elliott: And we definitely dressed down for the backyard version of the celebration.

Kelsey: I wore a shorter, white, thrifted satin halter dress with light-blue strappy shoes, both from ThredUp.

Elliott: It was more of a total wardrobe collapse for me. I had grand plans to wear slacks and loafers, but it was a sweltering day and we were running around readying the house. I ended up in faded-black shorts, a white T-shirt and socks with sandals.

Kelsey: I don’t blame him at all! It was so hot that my “Sticky Nips” nipple covers melted off and slid down my leg just before guests arrived. But the vibe of the party was perfect. We were a little nervous—any time you host that many people, there’s some stress—but once it started, it was all smooth and lovely.

Elliott: We thought it would be obvious we were married. Kelsey painted a giant sheet with the words “Just Married,” and instead of doing an announcement, we figured people would just know. But we spent most of the night explaining it over and over.

Kelsey: We set up a photo board with printed pictures from the city hall ceremony and our dinner at the Hamptons. When guests didn’t believe us, we’d take them to look at the photo evidence. Our friends were shocked.

Elliott: But, once it sunk in, they all said the same thing: “This is so you two.” The only enduring surprise was that we’d managed to keep it secret for so long.

Kelsey: Since we started early, most of the guests headed out around 8 p.m., but a few mainstays stuck around until midnight or so. Elliott and I were in bed by 1 a.m. Since we served mostly handheld foods, the house was basically clean when we woke up—the best feeling.

Elliott: Being married feels largely the same, but the biggest gift has been seeing our families connect. Our sisters have become fast friends because of the wedding, and they recently went on a sailing trip together in Victoria.

Kelsey: We’re really happy we did it, because it was a stepping stone to more adventures together. The wedding industry is inflated, and it doesn’t always offer realistic or healthy representations of what it means to celebrate love. We feel lucky to have come away with a great story of union without risking financial disarray to get it.

Cheat Sheet

Grand total: $8,569 Ceremony date: March 19, 2025 Reception date: June 7, 2025 Photography: Lizzie O’Donnell, $1,695; Daniella Emanuele, $600 Wedding venue: City hall, $325; the couple’s west-end backyard, $0 Marriage license: $160 Invitations: Paperless Post, $0 Ceremony food: Queen and Beaver; The Hamptons, $1,676 Reception food: Costco, $225; Beach Hill Smokehouse, $750 Reception dessert: Sonia’s Sweets, $250 Reception decorations: Kelsey MacDermaid, $122 DJ: Spotify (the “Summer Hits” playlist) Bride’s wedding ring: Evorden, $2,000 Groom’s wedding ring: Cynthia Findlay, $300 Bride’s ceremony dress: Poshmark, $93 Bride’s ceremony shoes: Facebook Marketplace, $80 Bride’s hair and makeup: Presley Foskett, $350 Bride’s reception dress and shoes: ThredUp, $98 Groom’s ceremony suit: Simon’s; R&W Co., $70 Groom’s reception suit: The depths of Elliott’s closet (Muji T-shirt, thrifted shorts, Champion socks, Birkenstocks)